A 12-year-old Boston boy got an eyeful when his subscription to the canceled Electronic Gaming Monthly was replaced with Maxim and his mother isn't too happy about it.

A few months after the plugged was pulled on EGM following the sale of the 1UP Digital Network to the Hearst-owned UGO in January, subscribers learned that the balance of their monthly magazine mailings would be filled by Maxim, the boobs-and-humor periodical popular among meatheads who aren't quite sophisticated enough for Penthouse. A fine trade in the eyes of some, no doubt, but not for Kathleen O'Donnell, whose pre-teen son Jake has so far received two issues of the magazine despite her request that it be canceled.

Jake, who according to a WBZ-TV report is a big fan of the Wii, noticed a few weeks ago that his favorite videogame magazine seemed different somehow. He showed it to his mom, who wasn't thrilled to have a pseudo-girlie magazine showing up in her mailbox unannounced. "When I saw it, I didn't think it was a magazine my son should be looking at," she said.

The first issue of the replacement subscription included a note telling subscribers they could "opt for a pro-rated refund for the balance of their EGM subscription," but O'Donnell wasn't happy that the magazine was mailed without prior approval. "I wasn't given a choice if I wanted to receive Maxim as a replacement for EGM before it showed up in my mailbox," she said. And although she sent in a written request to cancel the subscription, the August issue arrived right on schedule.

Color me shocked that parents of young gamers are surprised and not terribly happy with the surprise arrival of high-gloss sideboobs in their mailbox, pretty much exactly as predicted back in June. Maxim is far from hardcore porn but it's still hard to believe that nobody involved in the decision-making process saw this particular switcheroo as anything but spectacularly ill-conceived.

oliveira8:Silence of the Lamb Chops? What the hell? Oh wait the news...

Yeah I don't see how anyone didn't notice that this wouldn't be that great.

lol. you noticed the 'silence of the lamb chops' too? lol. whatever. whats wrong with maxim? it never has any nudity in it. kids can see worse when they go to the beach. and as for any written content... well... obviously these people haven't been to public schools...

I'm sure some free speech knee jerk reaction folks will be along any moment to riled up about some mom saying their kid shouldn't be reading Maxim.

The real issue, of course, is I didn't order freakin' Maxim Magazine, I ordered EGM. Give me what I paid for, or give me a refund, or a coupon or something, amirite? It's like paying $20 over the counter for a computer game, the clerk saying, "Oh, we're out. Here, take this instead." He then hands you a $20 package of contraceptives.

If you've taken my money after I asked for a specific thing, you don't have the right to just give me a random thing you have in stock instead - it's a very bad precedent to set. Here's one situation where a class-action lawsuit would emerge as quite justified.

Maxim is a fairly innocent magazine. No reason why the boy can't read through it; the boy's gonna have to learn sometime, and if his mom isn't going to talk to him about it, then he might as well learn from a good periodical.

That is surely a better trade. I'd rather have a Maximum over an EGM any day... Hopefully when Game Informer dies off, they start giving out subscriptions to Playboy or something... now that'd be awesome :DEditYou guys said Maximum doesn't know how to be funny...didn't the cover say "Megan Fox, the Re-birth of Sexy"? I think that's pretty funny...considering how Megan Fox is rather ugly compared to some of the other stars out there...

I remember EGM being a fairly graphic gaming magazine, one famous ad was the women with the gunshot in her head for Hitman, not quite for kids. And 12 is the age most boys start to like girls just give him a jumpstart and give him the talk.

You guys said Maximum doesn't know how to be funny...didn't the cover say "Megan Fox, the Re-birth of Sexy"? I think that's pretty funny...considering how Megan Fox is rather ugly compared to some of the other stars out there...

Silence of the Lamb Chops was also good. I laughed during very long periods of time and very loud so my neighbours could listen to my laughter.

What does she expect to accomplish here? She can't just shelter him forever, in fact if this kid goes to school hes probably learned a handful of things his mom would consider inappropriate. Not to mention he's probably seen worse in music videos alone.

You guys said Maximum doesn't know how to be funny...didn't the cover say "Megan Fox, the Re-birth of Sexy"? I think that's pretty funny...considering how Megan Fox is rather ugly compared to some of the other stars out there...

Silence of the Lamb Chops was also good. I laughed during very long periods of time and very loud so my neighbours could listen to my laughter.

...

Exactly. Maximum is funny, as it is stupider than Playboy, doesn't go all out like Playboy, and features "swamp thing" on the cover, calling "Swamp thing" sexy. See...even Maximum can make a few jokes... but, I'll stick to Playboy, since they had Marilyn Monroe in one issue :DEdit[More hate for Maximum] I'd be mad if I was the mother, too. At least they can have the respect to give the boy a magazine that isn't total fail...like Playboy or Penthouse.

In most parts of rural Canada that I'm aware of, people have passed the point of experimentation, and are experienced with sex by the time they're 12. Maxim at 12? Oh no. Although I do symphasize with the mother since EGM jumped this on her, she should really be letting her son own his life when he's 12. Only six years until he's going to have to. "I wasn't given a choice if I wanted to receive Maxim as a replacement for EGM before it showed up in my mailbox," is my main beef with her. She makes it seem like it's her magazine, and they changed her subscription on her. It's hard to separate yourself from your mother and become your own person when they treat you like this.

This same thing happened to me. I got home one day and my dad asked me why the Maxim had been delivered. He thought one of my friends did it for a prank or something, but I checked on the magazine cover and it said "as a replacement for the rest of your EGM subscription, you'll be receiving Maxim for the remaining time period" or something along those lines.

HeheHAHA!Sounds like a good trade to me!Really, seriously, he is going into middle school soon, and he is going to learn everything and some more there, if not from sex ed/health classes then from other kids. This mom is kidding herself if she thinks she can protect him. Didn't work on me.I would like a subscription to Game Informer, which will be changed to Penthouse/Playboy. :)

I can't believe no one thought ahead and realized this could be a possibility. I mean there are a lot of kids out there who have subscriptions to gaming magazines, but then again this is the world of business. Everyone there is crazy.

AAAAAAaaaaaaaahahahahahahaaaaaaa haaaaa I find that really quite funny X3 Still, good point though, surely it would have been better to replace the subscription with say, I dunno, a different gaming magazine?